


Ruins of Rkund

by lyssajanet



Series: OC Romance Week [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, OC Romance Week, Oh also, Only One Bed, bed sharing, im so sorry mod author, technically it's a tent but you know what? i'm making a canon event for them work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-23
Updated: 2019-06-23
Packaged: 2020-05-16 22:39:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19327549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lyssajanet/pseuds/lyssajanet
Summary: Turns out telling all your guild members you're married to the museum curator... makes them think you're married to the museum curator, and they start treating you two like a couple. For which sharing a tent on expeditions is expected. Easy, right? Well if you're not also majorly crushing on said curator, maybe.





	Ruins of Rkund

**Author's Note:**

> icecreamassassin im so sorry

The expedition had started out entirely as expected. The main crew of the Explorer’s Guild would set out for the site and get most of it set up while Velanna and her group would meet up with them once they were ready to start excavating the site. They all could manage without her very well, and it gave the dragonborn the chance to focus on saving Tamriel from dragons, instead of boring stuff like pitching tents. She fought tooth and nail against it, feeling that as the Guildmaster, she had an obligation to be with the group for the entire project. Fortunately, on their first and most recent expedition, Velanna was delayed for 3 days because of said Tamriel saving, and decided it was much easier to give into their wishes.

But after a long evening of scouring the freshly built site for a potential dig location (she had to do something) until the moons were both high in the sky came one of the first major consequences of her pretend marriage. A few months before, after Velanna had been found by the Thalmor and was actively being dragged out of the museum to be returned to Alinor for dissent, Chief Librarian of the Explorer’s Guild, Curator for the Museum of the Dragonborn, and hopeless crush of Velanna, Auryen Morellus, had lied to the faces of the Thalmor that Velanna couldn’t be this Faranya Spellbinder woman. No! She was his wife of nearly a century, and neither had set foot in Alinor in over 40 years. The Thalmor barely believed it, just enough to make them leave and release Velanna from their iron grip, even after Auryen quickly forged marriage documents from museum equipment.

And so their lie began, spreading across Skyrim that the dragonborn was a married woman and that Auryen was a married mer. The only ones who knew the truth were the two of them, and Velanna’s followers Kashia and Gael. Notably, this did not include their shared Explorer’s Guild. So when it came time for everyone to go to sleep, Velanna noticed three tents instead of four. While there had been one for her, Auryen, the women, and men, now there was one less.

“I thought we unpacked all the tents?” she asked the others shivering. Altmer really were not built for the bitter cold of Skyrim. At least Auryen had worn much warmer clothes. Velanna wondered if the fur on his coat was as soft as it looked before she told herself to knock it off.

“Oh, Professor Marassi had us only pack three since we thought the Guildmaster and the Chief Librarian should be sharing,” Latoria said. “Latoria was wondering why you two never said anything about being married during our first excavation. Surely we would have understood and been fine with you two sharing a tent.” From where he was warming up at the fire one last time before crawling into the men’s tent, Velanna could see Marassi fail to hide a smirk.

Of course it would make perfect, logical sense for the married couple of the team, who were also the leaders, to be expected to sleep in their own tent together. And back then, they weren’t fake married yet. But now, they were not only believed to be married, but that they had been married all the way back then. The guild had just assumed Velanna and Auryen, being only friends, would prefer to have their own tents. Now they were married, and married couples slept together.

Sleeping. With Auryen. Alone. All night.

“I – I didn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable with us… you know, flaunting our relationship.” How the Thalmor believed her, she would never understand, already feeling how terrible of an actress she was. Fireballs to dragons’ faces, she could do just fine. Anything involving Auryen? Blushing stuttering mess.

“Nonsense!” Marassi called out, oh-so pleased look still on his face, making Velanna even more nervous. “There’s nothing wrong with a married couple simply sharing a tent together for the night. Certainly none of us have a problem with it.”

She looked over to Auryen at his study table for help, but he looked just as nervous as her, frozen in place as he hovered over some artifact while listening to the conversation. They clearly both knew there was no way of getting out of this without exposing their secret.

Velanna cleared her throat over the sound of the wind. “Right. Well, uh, I guess I’ll – head to bed then. Good night everyone.” She ducked her head down, not making eye contact with Auryen or any of the others. For them, so they wouldn’t see how flustered all of this made her. For him, so she wouldn’t have to see whatever look of discomfort was on his face at the idea of having to share a tent with her. They were good enough friends, but to him, she was just a friend. It just happened that he also had to pretend to be in love with her, for both of safeties. She couldn’t bear to see that, not when her heart skipped a beat every time he greeted her when she returned to the museum.

At least Marassi in his evil heart had left them two bedrolls instead of forcing them to share one, the little bastard. He had to know something. How, Velanna didn’t know. But she sincerely doubted he was secretly planning on ratting them out to the Thalmor. She decided that once this expedition was done, she would ask Auryen if he thought Marassi knew anything about them. Regardless of how Auryen made her feel, she had to be a mature and responsible adult mer when it came to the Thalmor.

She dressed down for sleep and crawled under her bedroll, still shivering from her poor clothing packing decisions. In all fairness, she hadn’t planned on staying the night with the guild. But rarely did the weather care for fairness, and even more rarely did fairness care about Velanna. She hoped that she would either fall asleep before Auryen joined her in… their tent, or could fake it well enough and avoid any form of confrontation or acknowledgement. If she could just make it through this one night, then she could avoid staying late enough to force her to spend the night at camp with them, and thus avoid any more tent sharing nights with Auryen. It was save both of them from any type of discomfort. Yes. It was just one night. Surely, she could do that much.

Of course, fairness still refused to accommodate anything for Velanna, and eventually she heard Auryen enter as quietly as he could. He probably thought she was asleep. Good. If she could keep this up until the morning, then all would be fine.

“Are you alright?” she heard him whisper. Apparently the universe was determined to make this evening as painfully awkward as possible.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she answered, keeping her eyes shut.

She heard some shuffling from next to her, but stayed where she was. “You’re shivering.”

Velanna let out a gentle huff of laughter. “I hadn’t exactly planned on staying the night with everyone.” More shuffling.

Then, “Here,” and she felt a soft weight be placed on top of her. She opened her eyes and sat up a bit, feeling around at whatever this was. Auryen’s coat. It was as soft as she imagined, and she immediately blushed before guilt set it.

“Auryen, I can’t, yo-”

He held up a hand to stop her. “I will be fine. You are the one who is ill prepared for this, and it would be rather irresponsible of me as a friend to let my relic hunter freeze to death in the Jeralls.”

Nearly every part of her wanted to continue to object, but she was tired, and that coat was already so warm and soft. “Thank you,” she sighed gratefully, falling back onto her bedroll and closing her eyes. She heard Auryen finishing settling into his own bedroll, maintaining a respectful distance only barely possible in the originally one-person tent.

Part of her was grateful that her mind wouldn’t end up fixated on that point-of-contact all night, but another part of her couldn’t help but feel rejected despite her not even making an advance. Not that she ever would, especially since he was now obligated to pretend like he loved her to keep them both safe. She wouldn’t risk their friendship or safety on something as stupid as her crush.

A part of her she couldn’t contain made her peek over at Auryen, not sure what exactly she was looking for, but of course he was either already asleep or attempting to do so. For which she knew she needed to do the same. But how exactly was she supposed to get to a calm enough state to sleep when the mer she had been crushing on for months was now sleeping just inches away from her? Velanna was about to accept that tonight would just be a long and restless night, when she rolled onto her side away from Auryen and ended up pulling his coat in closer to her.

She buried her face into the soft fur, probably of some creature she had never seen in her own expeditions. Velanna was by no means an expert on Auryen’s scent (and would think of herself creepy if she were), but there was something about the scent and feeling it evoked that from his coat. Of comfort, of inner warmth, of home. So many things about him made her feel safe and secure, it would only be natural for it to immerse itself in his clothing as well. With a content smile on her face, Velanna’s mind began to rest.

              

The next morning when she awoke, she was alone, and despite the continuously dropping temperatures overnight, felt even warmer than before she fell asleep. All she wanted to do was snuggle more deeply into her bedroll and blankets, cocoon herself in the warmth and never have to brace the bitter cold of the outside world again. Distantly she could already hear the hubbub of the rest of the guild awakening and getting ready for a hard few days of excavating, of which she was not looking forward to joining in on.

 Then she realized she still had Auryen’s coat on top of her. Not only that, but that she was holding it very tightly to her front. And that if she wanted to return it to Auryen, she would have to basically tell everyone in the camp that he gave it to her last night for some unknown reason.

“Auri-El preserve me.”

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on the tumblr @ partyatsanguines


End file.
